Extensive ranch land constitutes this stretch of riverfront, north of the Colombia Solidarity Bridge. It's a rugged and scenic part of the county, with sandstone cliffs that abut the river, large islands in the middle, and a few streams that cut inland.

It's one of the most gorgeous sections of the Rio Grande, said Tom Miller, director of the Lamar Bruni Vergara Environmental Science Center, who has kayaked from Eagle Pass to Laredo and studied the river for years.

He hopes the wall won't be built here. This is one of the main stretches of the Rio Grande where endangered Hornshell mussels can be found — although Miller isn't as concerned about them as he is the ocelots and jaguarundis, both endangered small wild cats that roam the land.

"We're in strange times," Miller said.

The majority of this riverfront property is owned by large ranching companies such as Fasken Oil & Ranch, Los Angeles Cattle Company, Briscoe Ranch Inc., and Brask T-4 Ranch, according to Webb County Appraisal District records. Many of these tracts go back to the Spanish land grants.

Fasken was already hit once by the feds this year when the Department of Homeland Security built a large tent facility below La Posada, the hotel they own in downtown Laredo, in order to process immigrants waiting in Mexico to seek asylum.

Now the company stands to have a wall run through miles of its riverfront property.

Norbert Dickman, general manager of Fasken Oil & Ranch, said they will take every step to protect their ranch.

Because of these cliffs along the river, he believes that the government will have to take a lot of their property and build a barrier farther inland.

Dickman was surprised that the feds are moving so quickly and that Fasken's land is in the crosshairs. It's bad news, he said.

"We're more than willing to work with Border Patrol on sensible electronic ways to prevent people from coming over. All of us along the border have been saying this," Dickman said. "... We're going to do whatever we can to stop the confiscation of our land."

A statement to LMT by a Customs and Border Protection official explains that the projects identified for a new border wall system are selected based on Border Patrol's current priorities and operational requirements.

For five years Border Patrol has engaged its field commanders to identify "capability gaps" in their mission, according to the official.

"Through this process, (Border Patrol) identified its highest priority locations for investment in border wall system," the CBP official wrote. "(A) new border wall system in these locations will improve (Border Patrol's) ability to impede and deny illegal border crossings and the drug and human smuggling activities of transnational criminal organizations."

Webb County Commissioner John Galo said he was not at all surprised to hear that Border Patrol had chosen this section of the county to build their first section of fencing here. This is a high traffic area, and it's very rough terrain, he said.

He believes the government also considered that they would have fewer landowners to deal with in this area.

Galo's family owns land in this part of the county, although it's not near enough to the river to be affected by the border fencing. He said this is a difficult problem that could trap some people on their property with the fence behind them.

And many of these ranches pump water from the river, as do oil companies — he wonders how this will all work out.